808689
submission
PizzaFace writes:
The Washington Post reports on the booming business selling your medical treatment records. Today they are mainly records of your prescriptions, but the data warehouses will soon have records of your lab tests, too. The companies that sell these records make it easy for insurance companies to avoid risk, by assigning each person a health score, similar to a credit score, or by flagging items in each person's history that suggest chronic or potentially expensive health problems. It's not just for insurers; employers who check applicants' credit scores will surely be interested in their health scores, too.
508882
submission
PizzaFace writes:
U.S. Customs agents have long had broad authority to examine the things a person tries to bring into the country, to prevent the importation of contraband. The agents can conduct their searches without a warrant or probable cause to believe a crime has been committed. In recent years, Customs agents have begun using their authority to insist on copying data brought to the border on laptop computers, cell phones and other devices. The government claims that this intelligence-gathering by Customs is the same as looking in a suitcase, but there are differences. First, it's done to people leaving the country as well as those entering. Second, Customs doesn't just screen the data for contraband, but records huge volumes of private information and keeps it for future data-mining. Third, the owner of the data is deprived of the data, and the device on which it is held, for as long as Customs claims to need the device for copying, which may be forever.
241197
submission
PizzaFace writes:
It's Jhannet's 19th birthday, so her boyfriend borrows a camcorder to memorialize the occasion, and they head to the mall. They goof around, recording each other and the Chick-fil-A cows in the food court, then decide to catch the Transformers matinee, which started a few minutes earlier. During a big action scene, Jhannet takes the camcorder and records a 20-second clip to show her little brother. A few minutes later, cops who were called by the manager come in with flashlights, arrest Jhannet, confiscate the camcorder, and, at the behest of Regal Cinemas, charge her with film piracy. "I was terrified," said Jhannet. "I was crying. I've never been in trouble before." If convicted, she could be sentenced to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine. The police say they lack discretion because Regal Cinemas chose to prosecute: "They were the victim in this case, and they felt strongly enough about it." The National Association of Theatre Owners supports Regal's "zero-tolerance" prosecution standard: "We cannot educate theater managers to be judges and juries in what is acceptable. Theater managers cannot distinguish between good and bad stealing."
